Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Superintendent Heath Morrison left Monday night's employee meeting with a list of new things to look into, including the fairness of the teacher transfer process and questions about combined elementary/middle schools.

"My concern was that people weren't going to put issues on the table," Morrison said after the meeting, which was closed to the public and press. But he said about 150 employees showed up, and many were eager to tell him how he needs to fix morale and trust.

That won him high marks with some who attended. Lachone Winston, a teacher at Bruns Academy, said Morrison seemed intent on getting each speaker's point, rather than giving an "OK, but ..." type response. "He is a listener," she said.

Among the issues that came up, according to Morrison and participants, was whether the teacher transfer process works as it should and whether students in the growing number of K-8 schools are prepared for the transition to high school. Morrison said he didn't have answers yet, but "trust me, tomorrow I'm going to be asking questions."

Of course, raises came up as well -- in particular, the fact that some administrators got large market adjustment raises in addition to the 3 percent given to all employees. Teachers were not eligible for the market bumps, which are based on a 2007 study of jobs comparable to some CMS salaried and hourly posts. "In our break-out session, we were hot about that," Winston said.

After the session, Morrison voiced frustration that the market hikes are creating resentment just as teachers finally get their first raise in three years. But he declined to say whether interim Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh and his staff erred in pushing through those raises.

The market adjustments, which cost a little over $4 million in county money, were part of the raise plan Hattabaugh started pitching in January. The board approved a specific plan in late June, just before Morrison officially started work, and approved a final budget last week. Morrison said he was mainly aware of the 3 percent raises for everyone, and started looking into specifics of the market hikes as public questions arose.

"In theory I agree with the market adjustment. It's the right thing to do," he said. But he said "the timing of it is not good," and the district was too slow to offer details and answer questions.

Some of the specifics are continuing to raise eyebrows. Market raises went to principals who had already gotten significant raises when they were promoted, in the five years after the study was done. At least a couple of people in temporary jobs, including one in a two-year Broad Foundation management training program, got raises. And perhaps most confounding, state Rep. Tricia Cotham, who isn't currently working for CMS, is listed as getting a $6,883 annual raise. Cotham was an assistant principal at East Mecklenburg High when she went on unpaid leave to serve in the state House. CMS agreed to keep her on the payroll so she can return without penalty. Her raise would kick in only after her return.

Meanwhile, those who want to hear from Morrison or ask him questions will have plenty of chances Thursday. He'll be on WFAE's Charlotte Talks that morning. He's the speaker at a lunch sponsored by the Ballantyne and SouthPark branches of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce at the Ballantyne hotel; it's open to nonmembers who register and pay $45 for lunch. And at 6 p.m. he'll hold the first of his public town hall meetings, at Rocky River High in Mint Hill.

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comments:

Dr M is frustrated that the teachers resent the market adjustments just when they are getting their first raise in 4 years? What exactly is he frustrated about? Should the teachers be joyful that overpaid, underworked admin is getting a big payload while they, even with this COLA, are now going to be stuck at 2009 wages.

I understand that the market adjustment applies only to people who have been in that job for 2 years. That would be because any of those jobs that were filled along the way came with adjustments at the time, unlike any teachers who came into the system the past 4 years at a frozen salary. Dr M is stepping onto a slippery slope to say that adjustments for the few at the top are good, just badly timed. Does that mean they should have waited until he had his new media people in place so they could put a better spin on it. I will agree that the market adjustments should have come after the 3%. That way they would have been less two ways. The adjustment would not have been on the 3% and possibly it would have been calculated on the plus 3% amount and therefore in need of a smaller amount.

The market adjustment does not apply to people who have been in the position for 2 years. Many of the engineers, etc. have been here a long long time.Problem is the adjustment only looked at the job title for comparison to outside positions; not what the person actually does in CMS. That's where it became disjointed and "unfair" as some of the roles don't come close to what is expected of the job in the regular job market.

Did anyone's salary go down as part of the market adjustment? Would they do this again in the future to reduce salaries if that's the way the "market" moved? If not, then the purpose wasn't truly to adjust to the market. But if it had to be done, mayhaps something like a 3-yr phase-in would have been more palatable. More power to the folks who got more money. I don't begrudge that to anyone who can get it. But I agree that the timing and appearance did not help morale at all.

I am glad it appears the teachers were forthcoming in being honest with Dr. Morrison. I am with WC on the 8th grade thing. It isn't about where they are (ware)housed. It is how the culture views education. I am glad I am beginning to hear more stories about some of these students trying to put the nar-dow-ells in their place and calling them out for thier ghetto behavior.

I hope people start jumping in big time on the descrepancy in urban school funding and the lack of significant acheivement inprovement once they are over $6600 per pupil funding.

Wiley, As you personally know, there is one K-8 that has worked for almost twenty years with successful graduates around the world. That model has succeeded in spite of basic support from CMS and due to maximum support from parents and the foreign language communities in the area. The keys are parental and curriculum with a goal and a global vision. But you already experienced and knew that.

I don't think the article meant that Dr. Morrison was frustrated with teachers over their feelings, but rather, frustrated that this "market rate" thing, has created animosity when he was hoping teachers would be happy to be getting some kind of raise. There is no question Hugh Hattabaugh ( with help from Ann Clark ??) shoved these raises through quickly and there is good reason on analysis, that they were slow to respond.

I was at the meeting and felt as if folks were hesitant to speak. I for one did not speak. How safe is it really to say that your boss (or future boss), who might be sitting in the room, is a bully? How can you safely say that one of the biggest problems in CMS is a lack of truth when the very people who were orchestrating much of this meeting were the folks from the Communication Department? They are part of the misinformation spin problem in CMS. If Heath want folks to speak, he is going to need to set this up differently.

My experience in the small breakout meeting was that folks tended to go off on their own issues. In order for this to be done correctly, Heath is going to have to look at the big picture. The problems in CMS are symptoms of long term issues. For example, HR has been a disaster for 15 plus years. Many of the middle managers are the problem. It is hard to retrain folks and even harder to get rid of them.

My suggestion is for Heath to work with a small group of people who will tell him the truth. This is going to take him years to root out some of the institutional dysfunction found in the CMS culture.

Morrison said he was mainly aware of the 3 percent raises for everyone, and started looking into specifics of the market hikes as public questions arose.

"In theory I agree with the market adjustment. It's the right thing to do," he said. But he said "the timing of it is not good," and the district was too slow to offer details and answer questions.

Can anyone name one other industry that gives market adjustments? Especially during one of the worst recessions in history?

What exactly did Dr. Morrison get as "specifics" about the Market Adjustments? Who did he get these specifics from? And did he get specific enough to think about stopping it altogether?

The district is STILL too slow and has STILL not answered questions. Dr. Morrison, you're running the district now. I truly hope you're not planning on waiting until November to address the public over these market adjustments. Taxpayers and parents and teachers deserve an explanation NOW.

It is real indicative of the problem within Charlotte Mecklenburg when the urban subculture refuses to change, fights change, uptown power brokers try to soothe over the change, etc. when all along suburba families have had to deal with constant reassignment till the busing order was overturned and CMS has had successful multi-school levels in single buildings.

He did hold a meeting and he did "listen". Questions is what is your action plan? I say What is your action plan? Of course 150 teachers showed up as well they should have. When you slap a minor 3% raise on them and throw $10k to $15k at a LIFT teacher their are going to be questions. Talk is very cheap I would like to see the teachers taken care of pre start of school in 4 weeks. Certainly before the new " CMS News propoganda " team starts up. What a waste of money that will be. Keith W. Hurley

How about just pay the teachers for their years of service!!IT's pathetic that a 10 year teacher is being paid as a 5 or 6!!!Just give them pay based on their years of service!!Eventually what are we going to have? 20 year teacher still being paid the step from 2007!!

Where and how do you suggest he starts Keith? If he were a plumber, he would go to where it stinks first. The problem is, it smells in more than one place and this is a huge district. HR and Communications are good starting points.

He hears that folks are angry on the fair market value stuff just like we were angry about the I-Pad situation. These were simply bad decisions done at the most inappropriate time.

So how does this new guy in town address stupid decisions? My first question is why were these decisions made? Were they bombs set off to make the district look bad? Were they decisions of opportunity, done under the cover of transition that folks thought no one would see. Oops, my bad! I would be furious if I were Heath.

Ann, will you be providing us information about how former employees might be able to participate in the upcoming communication/HR audit? I would love nothing more than to provide them with copies of official paperwork showing legally actionable items generated by school administration, zone HR, employee affairs, and Gorman's office from when my principal attempted to have me wrongly terminated.

If you have legally actionable items, why would you need to show up to an audit? If they are really actionable, seek legal remedy. I am betting you went to a lawyer and they told you that you don't have a case.

2:46, I'll keep you posted on the HR audit as those details emerge. Your situation sounds like a challenging one. I can't imagine the consultant can spend huge amounts of time doing a post-mortem on individual cases. Instead, I think she'll be looking for ways to improve the system moving forward. But of course problems of the past may be a guide to that.

Did you talk to any of the employee associations about your experience, and if so, did you get any support? That might be one avenue for CMS to learn about persistent, systemic problems.

2:54, At the time, I did consult a lawyer, who helped the school board's lawyer understand the seriousness of the situation, which is why my principal was overruled and why I kept my job. Ultimately, I left CMS and moved to a new school system, where I am extremely happy and received many "distinguished" rankings on my final evaluation, which I think we can all agree is better than a drawn-out lawsuit.

At the same time, if the new superintendent is serious about fixing the problems that exist in the system, I would like for him to be aware of what I went through, particularly to deal with the unscathed individuals in the system who multiple other people have had issues with as well.

12:41 I totally agree with you! As much as I appreciate Dr. Morrison being willing to listen with an open mind, I do not at all feel safe telling the truth so openly. Perhaps for a few meetings he could have restricted administrators from attending. Too many administrators in CMS are petty, power-tripping bullies who would be more suited for places like North Korea rather than places of learning. If Dr. Morrison really wants to clean up CMS my suggestion would be to reign in these administrators who drive away good teachers by their incompetance, stupidity, and treacherousness. The problem in CMS isn't with those in front of the classroom but with those who are running (ruining) the schools.

People were fooled again.BOCC were made to look like fools.Teachers-"we only have $ for this 3% increase...and thousands for fr**kin adjustments" is what you are told. And you believe anything they say?

Even though this process has some glitches at this time, Dr. Morrison should still be given the opportnunity to streamline the process so that it will be more effective. A great deal of the employees are afraid to speak because we have witnessed the threat of retaliation. Perhaps, Dr. Morrison should hold separate forums for administrators and teachers. If he does this, I am sure that he will receive more truthful information. Dr. Morrison my advice to you is to take a good, hard look at HR. this department has broken so many laws in regards to employment, retention etc. that it is pathetic. This department is your greatest liability. Check it out and I believe you will find unethical practices on a daily basis.

6:04- Thank you for understanding my point. It resonates thru the commmunity daily. CMS fumbles then makes a foolish PR statement then says we will comment when we get a answer. That answer never comes as different issues come up with deeper issues so the "pile under the carpet" is a elephant if you will. Heath has a option and a clean slate to improve this distrust/miscommunication. Keith W. Hurley

7:54 it's Broad policy to take care of one another so I see it coming as you do. Lift is another payback to keep the minority community quite after CMS closed their schools they ran into the ground. All in the good name of A good old fashioned payback. It's BROAD policy and Heath wil follow Eli Broad just like Petey.

Monkey see and Monkey do. Straight out of the BROAD playbook.Look at how many BROAD Logos are on the kool aide drinkers at the end of the emails. See how all of them are at the end of every administrator and how few are at the end of teachers. Not to many teachers at ALL.

Christine - no disrespect intended but we've done some market adjustments over the last 5 years in the A/E/C industry. From what I know, it's nothing major like $17k, rather the idea was to be somewhat strategic about it, but still adjustments nonetheless.

I also know some IT colleagues in other industries who got adjustments too in the past few years.

That aside, I'm presuming the public meetings will have breakout sessions too? Otherwise, it would seem like they would devolve into parents ranting about very specific issues about their children.

So is there any information about the structure of the meetings? Or we'll just wait and see what happens on Thursday?

I said it earlier, many might come to the meeting (and they did) but many did not speak out for fear of retaliation. I think the suggestion of having the teachers with Dr. Morrison and NO Principals, AP's or zone people allowed is a great one!

CMS could do some real market adjustments. Teachers class sizes have been increased by 30-50% so go ahead make a market adjustment for them. Use that money from the leased buildings that you saved on go ahead Timmy Morgan do it. Were is that savings oh Chamber Boy?

Jeff, the iPad rollout advice actually does apply to the significant CMS purchases made last year. I'm still working on follow-up, but from what I know CMS did anticipate some of these issues, such as having a bulk-purchase plan and a budget for buying classroom apps.

BTW, for the teacher who posted "I am the app!", that's one of my favorite lines to come out of this.

Some of us Observer old-timers were reminiscing about when we got a market adjustment raise way before the recession. We were torn between "Yay, a raise!" and "Wait, how long have I been paid less than my counterparts?"

Off the subject but should play well in certain quarters here in Charlotte--according to the Meck Ed newsletter: "President Barack Obama is creating a new office to bolster education of African-American students.

The White House says the office will coordinate the work of communities and federal agencies to ensure that African-American youngsters are better prepared for high school, college and career.

Obama is announcing his election-year initiative Wednesday night in a speech to the civil rights group the National Urban League as he seeks to rally black voters."

Can't wait until another layer of entitlement bureaucracy swings into action.

Wow... Dr. Morrison and all of the principals who I KNOW read this blog. Are you really listening? Can you really hear the concerns about the Gestapo Administrators in the system and the Nazi Human Resource department? I am more than surprised that the SAME abuse issues arise and NOTHING is done to address these. UNLESS of course THAT in fact is the objective. Lose on Purpose to position the District in a more favorable (to receive pity money) position. Sounds like the badminton sports story in todays CO issue. Use the rules to gain YOUR own advantage. It is alright if the Real teachers are upset and leave...THEN we can bring in our TFA automotons who know nothing and CMS can TELL them what they WANT!! Whatever that is???Heath in charge or chief Puppet?

How is it that no one has mentioned the issue of the extended school day? Has it all been forgotten? While the teacher workday has not changed, teachers still need that 45+ minutes to plan and prepare. Not to mention children are exhausted and it's reflective in their attitude and behavior. There's not enough money to run the bus schedule as it was in the past, but there is enough for administrator's to get a significant pay increase? The 3% pay increase for teachers is a nice gesture, however it doesn't make up for the extra hours teachers are putting in and should be compensated for. Dr. Morrison, you want to boost morale and retain teachers? Take your 3% and give us back our 45 minutes!

10:50, it's not appropriate for me to play any kind of behind-the-scenes emissary role. As 12:02 notes, what I report (and what people say about it) is available to CMS honchos along with everyone else.

That just makes up for the ABC bonus money that was pulled out from under me four years ago. Now what about the loss of dental and vision benefits and the increase in health insurance costs. Combine that with a pay freeze for four years and you are talking about a loss of over $6 THOUSAND. 3% is a jesture to try to keep NC competative with other states. The teaching crisis will return no matter how many TFA's or $17,000 raises you give to people to quantify the next pay raise performance gimmick program. Teachers dont trust the state nor the mess that is CMS.

Dr. Morrison, I truly hope that you have been reading the comments that have been posted on this blog as well as other articles. You see, I am a teacher in CMS who is both hopeful that you will make positive changes but skeptical too. We had a previous superintendant who promised to make a lot of positive changes and listen to the teachers. But, somewhere along the way Dr. Gorman lost his focus and morale once again was poor.

If you want CMS to reach its potential you need to clean house in Human Resources, crack down on the awful administrators (HR knows who they are), and support teachers in terms of discipline.

Look, you all know which principals and AP's are detrimental to their schools. Central Office surely reads the surveys. Central Office knows which schools experience high turnover on a consistent basis as well as reads the comments from those teachers who have quit.

Stop coddling bad students and start expelling them. We have a Rights and Responsibilities Handbook that clearly states expectations as well as consequences. How about expecting school administrators to actually consistently enforce the consequences for a change????? The kids think it's a joke and they are right!

Ann, thanks for the correction, I was thinking solely about BYOT and not the grants for the classroom iPads - my bad.

Looking back, then yes, that article you linked definitely applies to the iPads being passed out by CMS. I'm guessing they will be using some kind of MDM (mobile device management) software like Air Watch to control use.

MDM will guard against app downloads and afford consistent interfaces across devices.

It also has theft control in that is renders useless a device if it goes AWOL. Apple also has this functionality on lost devices, but does not have good solutions for controlling app download and use.

That said, I imagine any number of student geeks will, once they find out what MDM is being used, start researching how to bypass it!

Mr. Super, One facet that leaves such a sour taste is the total lack of respect the system has for the people that work for it. My spouse retired this year after nearly a quarter a century of service. Not a thank you, a ten cent certificate, or even acknowledgement from the school's administration. I guess learning a teacher's name is too much for a principal to do these days. Even Mr. Avossa found a way to give retirees a piece of cake. I guess smiling every morning knowing the urban education system is not in her future is reward enough.